Sunday, August 28, 2016

Last week No Mans Sky came out. I was really looking forward to it, until I found out the $60 price point. In my mind this is absurd for a fully randomly generated game. Without clear goals, multiplayer or the ability to build stuff, I don't know why anyone would play this for more than a day. Needless to say, everyone I know who bought it is done with it. Cool idea. Should be $20 tops.

What does this have to do with ROD? I was doing my daily Steam search on that day and I discovered this other new randomly generated space exploration game. But this one had rogue like and strategy elements and it was $1. SOLD! So I decided to give it a spin. I was very pleasantly surprised.

ROD is a simple RTS space exploration game. You are in charge of keeping your small colony/space station alive by building structures, trees for oxygen, finding fuel and a bunch of other upgrades. A really unique twist is that all the tiles of your space station flip over with the press of a button. So you can have an offensive defensive grouping of turrets under your buildings and trees. This will come in handy when you encounter other colonies to take their resources.

The world map is very well done. You can travel to any of the closest locations. Blue ones are other colonies which can be abandoned, unexplored or have other people who will fight you with their own defenses. The purple dots are shops where you can purchase people, materials and fuel. Yellow dots are repair stations where you can fix up any structures that have taken damage. This is a fantastic and well balanced system. There are a few crazy traps that I fell into... but I would rather not spoil it for you. hehe :)

While the presentation is less than stellar, everything is fairly straight forward. There is no tutorial and they dont tell you how to play at all. But I was able to figure it all out within the first play through. Once I realized there was a winning condition, I beat the game is about 2 hrs. ROD: Revolt of Defense is a great little RTS with some unique ideas and refined design. Its $1! Gift it to your friends! GG.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Another one of my favorite Undertale characters: Muffet, the bake sale spider. Her story is super silly and her battle mechanics are some of the best in the game. I decided to try a super soft, air brushy color job for this one. Not really my style preference, but I wanted to try something a bit different.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Ghost of a Tale is an amazing little indie stealth game with high production values despite being made by one person. It has a great vibe reminiscent of the Redwall book series or the classic film, Secret of Nimh.

While the story is not amazing, the game features some great, quirky characters with amazing dialogue. Artistically, the game is beautiful. The lighting and attention to detail in every space is impressive to say the least. This game has a day and night cycle which changes certain gameplay elements such as finding beetles that make noise at night and affecting enemy visibility. The overall presentation helps create an incredibly immersive experience.

The stealth gameplay is solid with lots of cupboards, baskets, chests and barrels to hide in. While the enemy AI is pretty basic and is easily fooled, they are still quite scary due to you being a mostly defenseless mouse. Finding keys, changing gear, and doing quests are all well executed with strong story driven context.

Ghost of a Tale is currently on Steam early access for $20. While I dont regularly suggest early acces games, This one already feels very polished. Its great to see people doing something new in the stealth space and I am very happy to say this one is worth the price of admission. GG!

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Here is my version of another great Undertale character, Flowey: the deranged flower. This is one of the creepiest characters I have ever seen in a game. Not only is he surprisingly scary, he is also one of the deepest and best written villains in gaming history.

Monday, August 08, 2016

My game of the week is an amazing little digital adventure/card battle game called Card City Nights. I picked it up when it came out on Steam a couple of years ago. I grabbed it because the card art was so unique and pretty crazy and it was $5. After playing it, I realized that it was not only aesthetically interesting, it was an all around amazing experience.

The world is immediately engaging and immersive. The music and mood create an inviting place to explore. The characters are so unique and interesting. Even though the entire game is played at night and you are always challenging people (and creatures) to duel, it never feels aggressive or stressful.

The core gameplay is focused on a 3x3 position based grid. Each card has arrows on the sides or corners which make them ideal for putting them in specific areas on your grid. Its a very simple, yet genius mechanic. Theme wise the cards are all over the place. They are anything from rocket cats to snowmen to statues with wings. While anything goes, the developers managed to keep everything feeling cohesive due to the unified art style, sounds and animations.

Unilke most TCGs, this game is very approachable and easy to pick up and learn. The complexity comes from how you decide to build your deck as the game progresses. With a fun story, brilliant characters, simple yet amazing art and music, Card City Nights is a must play regardless if you like the genre or not. Its less than $5 on Steam. Ultra worth! GG!

Card City Nights is less than $5 on Steam. Pick it up and prepare to have a great time. GG!

Sunday, August 07, 2016

My sister has been asking me for a drawing for a long time. She a Leo and loves lions. I drew her one a long time ago but it disappeared into my sea of random sketches. So I did this for her Birthday which was yesterday. Happy BD, Christi!